1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for processing an incoming electronic message to correct erroneous data within the message and, more particularly, the present invention is directed to searching a database for substantially similar previously received electronic messages and utilizing existing correction data to replace data of the electronic message.
2. Related Art
Businesses receive many electronic messages each day which must be processed in various ways prior to delivery to an intermediate or final destination. In particular, financial institutions receive incoming electronic messages throughout the day representing financial transactions, such as payments or deposits. Often, the incoming electronic messages are transmitted from a plurality of different entities, such as wire services (such as SWIFT), clearing houses (such as CHIPS), and/or the Federal Reserve Bank (FED). As well as other entities world wide. A large financial institution, such as Chase Manhattan Bank, may receive as many as 200,000 or more incoming electronic messages from these entities and others over the course of a day. Thus, in order to efficiently and quickly process the incoming electronic messages it is extremely important that the incoming electronic messages contain accurate data.
Permitting incoming electronic messages containing erroneous data to pass on to subsequent processes or entities without verifying the accuracy of data will often result in excess costs in terms of human resources, efficiency, revenue, and customer satisfaction.
Prior art methods for processing these incoming electronic messages, if any, require manual review and revisions to each incoming electronic message to obtain a high degree of confidence in the quality of the data. These methods, however, are disadvantageous in that they require significant human resources, and have relatively low throughput.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a novel method and apparatus for processing incoming electronic messages to identify and correct erroneous data.
In order to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art, a method for processing an incoming electronic message containing raw data according to the present invention includes the steps of: providing a database having a plurality of stored records, each stored record having searchable data and output data; selecting at least a subset of the raw data from the incoming electronic message to produce search criteria; searching the database to locate a stored record having searchable data substantially matching the search criteria; and automatically replacing at least a subset of the raw data of the incoming electronic message with the output data associated with the located stored record.
The step of generating the searchable data may include the steps of: providing an algorithm for converting raw data of the incoming electronic message into at least one index string; inputting at least the subset of the raw data into the algorithm; and assigning the searchable data to be the resulting index string.
The step of producing the search criteria may include the steps of: inputting at least a subset of raw data of a subsequent incoming electronic message into the algorithm; and assigning the search criteria to be the resulting index string.
The electronic messages may each have a plurality of fields containing the raw data.
The step of providing a database may include the steps of: determining whether at least one of the fields of an incoming electronic message contains erroneous raw data; determining correct data for replacing the erroneous raw data; creating a stored record comprising (i) unique searchable data generated from at least a subset of the raw data, and (ii) output data comprising the correct data; and storing the stored record in the database.
An apparatus for processing an incoming electronic message containing raw data according to the invention includes: a database having a plurality of stored records, each stored record having searchable data and output data; and a processing unit operable to (i) select at least a subset of the raw data from the incoming electronic message to produce search criteria; (ii) search the database to locate a stored record having searchable data substantially matching the search criteria; and (iii) automatically replace at least a subset of the raw data of the incoming electronic message with the output data associated with the located stored record.